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Kate Soper promotes the attractions of a post-consumerist life-style - something that is of critical importance in winning wider support for a sustainable future.
The evidence for the impact on global warming of affluent lifestyles is now incontrovertible and receiving belated mainstream media attention. One has to be glad of this. But it is difficult not to be disheartened by the blinkered nature of the two most commonly encountered reactions. On the one hand, there are the carpe diem fatalists. Resigned to the prospect of ecological devastation, they see little point in mending their profligate ways, since the impact globally will be so minimal. Every percentage reduction of carbon emissions in the UK, they point out, will be more than cancelled out by their increase in China or India. As the counter to this we have the technical-fix optimists, who believe - or hope - that new technologies will solve the problem, thus ensuring continued economic growth with very little alteration in our life-style. Provided we make the investment now, the 'pain', as these optimists put it, can be kept to a minimum.
I shall not here address the particular arguments of these responses, nor seek to arbitrate between them. What concerns me, rather, is what they share in common, namely, the presumption that the consumerist model of the 'good life' is the one we want to hold on to as far as we can; and that any curb on that will necessarily be unwelcome and distressing. Neither the 'seize the day' fatalists nor the technical optimists dwell on the negative consequences of Euro-American-style affluence for consumers themselves (the stress, ill-health, congestion, pollution, noise, excessive waste); and neither suggest it might be more fun to escape the confines of the growth-driven, shopping-mall culture than to continue to keep it on track. We hear all too little of what might be gained by moving away from our current obsession with consumerist gratifications, and pursuing a less work-driven and acquisitive way of life.
The reason for this is obvious. Counter-consumerism is bad for business. It is ultimately incompatible with the continued flourishing of de-regulated global capitalism. (It is a measure of the Stern report's alienation that it cites the risk to economic growth as the main...